Also called cubicle, stall. a small recess or enclosed area in a library stack, designed for individual study or reading.
a table or desk with three sides extending above the writing surface to serve as partitions, designed for individual study, as in a library.
1585–95; variant spelling of carol enclosure
A carrel is a cozy, private work area usually found in a library. When you have a long paper to write, you might want to settle into a carrel with your books and laptop. A carrel is a cubicle or alcove which contains a desk and chair, and sometimes a shelf and electric outlets. Carrels are perfect study spots for college students, but anyone who uses a library can sit in a carrel to read or write. The word comes from the Medieval Latin carula, "small study in a cloister," possibly from a Latin root word meaning "ring."
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
John was old enough to climb out, but Witcher put Delia in the carrel and gave John a book.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 29, 2022
He shares his remote refuge, a forgotten carrel on the 9th floor, with a woman with a distinct resemblance to Ozeki herself.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2021
Where I, a Baltimore Sun reporter, was once crammed into a carrel alongside such venerable Times reporters as Lizette Alvarez, Alison Mitchell and Eric Schmitt, there are file cabinets.
From New York Times ● Sep. 6, 2017
The manuscript did indeed survive, complete and unpublished, and I spent hours turning over its pages at a carrel there.
From The New Yorker ● Mar. 9, 2015
I sit at a carrel by a window and keep being drawn to the traffic, even though I know it’s still a couple of hours until Rhiannon will show up.
From "Every Day" by David Levithan
I must confess I had never heard of Alexis Carrel, the French surgeon who in 1912 won the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 2026
Swiss-Italian boundaries will be changed in the region of Plateau Rosa, the Carrel refuge and Gobba di Rollin - all are near the Matterhorn and popular ski resorts including Zermatt.
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2024
David M. Friedman, who wrote “The Immortalists: Charles Lindbergh, Dr. Alexis Carrel and Their Daring Quest to Live Forever,” said he had not read Pearlman’s book but found the theory about Lindbergh and Carrel absurd.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 10, 2024
Around the same time Loeb's book was published, French physician Alexis Carrel developed techniques for growing tissues in a culture medium: a kind of unformed living material.
From Scientific American ● May 31, 2023
But Carrel set out to prove them wrong.
From "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
